The Ghost.
The age of superstition has not yet passed away from the minds of some people in this neighbourhood. For the past week or ten days, it is said, some supernatural being has haunted the house of Mr John Pickering, creating considerable alarm to the inmates. Huge stones and pieces of potsherds have been thrown at the door, but nothing in the shape of ghost, goblin, or devil has as yet been seen, although a careful look-out have been kept. One remarkable circumstance in the mystery is that the rapping does not take place on Sunday nights or when the evening is wet.
Crowds of people pay nightly visits to the house, but the wiseacres have been unable to find out whether the ghost is that of Roger the Swineherd, whom an old legend says is laid in an adjoining morass, or that of Nanny Kirk.
The token appears not only at the hour when “grave-yards yawn,” but as early as five o’clock in the morning. The more wise of the village folks believe that it is someone in human form, who is playing a trick in order to create an excitement, and we are inclined to believe the same. The affair is in the hands of the police, who we hope will find out the delinquent and bring him to punishment.
Burton Chronicle, 5th December 1878.